20 QUESTIONS WITH .... THE CAPTAIN OF COMPLIANCE

When you look at Natalie's career, you see BIG names, BIG jobs, and BIG responsibilities.

Which makes it all the more joyful when you meet her and she is so down to earth. I came away from our meeting thinking she epitomizes what I wish all female bosses were like. She has a great #boss energy about her, but is humble and we spoke at length about the challenges young juniors face.

She has built entire functions from the ground up, including hubs in India and her success in doing so is remaining approachable, open and with a team vision always.

In a role that requires her to interact with the board at Amazon (!), you would think she would be more Amanda Priestly vibes but Natalie focuses on bringing both her team and wider business on the compliance journey in a career that can only be described as outstanding.

I call her the "Captain of Compliance" because she does just that - she leads like the captain of a team, not the boss (or governor? - appaz that's a football term) and gains the respect which comes with this. She looks for the long-term, not the short-term championship (ok, I am out of football chat now).

So without further chats from me..

"20 QUESTIONS WITH.....THE CAPTAIN OF COMPLIANCE"

1.?What does your morning routine look like?

I like to take my dog for a walk first thing then I grab a cup of tea and start my day.

I try to identify one key priority I want to complete by the end of the day. I usually have meetings most of the day so it helps me to think about one key priority that I must do and if I can get my one key priority complete then my day feels successful. This helps when you work in a very fast-paced environment because there is always lots to do and I found that I didn’t feel that sense of achievement very often until I started to think differently.

2. Do you prefer WFH or office, personally?

I like both, for different reasons. I love being in the office with my team as I think you build connections more easily in person and I have a pretty new team so it’s really important for us. Working from home is also great, when you have to work long hours to get a project over the line or you just need a work life balance, I find that WFH gives me the flexibility I need sometimes.

3. Tell me about your first financial services job and how you got it

My first job was with HSBC, entry-level, working at a call center. I ended up working for HSBC for about 9 years and I loved that throughout my time with HSBC I had lots of opportunities to learn and develop - there were some fantastic people along the way that really invested and supported me.

4. What do you love about your current role?

I love how varied my role is, working at Amazon is very fast-paced and there are so many exciting projects happening. I love my team, we have just spent some time together at our offsite in Berlin getting to know each other better and I feel very lucky to have such a great team of people that are very passionate about what they do.

5. What do you love the least about your current role?

I am always so busy and I would love to have more time to develop my team.

6. What does a typical day look like for you?

There is no typical day for me, each day is so different to the next. There are some consistent themes which are: speaking with regulators,?discussing new product or service launches with the business teams, understanding areas of improvement in current controls then driving the change required, planning for regulatory change and working on initiatives to support our global scaling in payments.

7. ?What’s your best advice for the most junior person in your team

I always say to my team ‘get comfortable being uncomfortable because you have to take on work outside of your comfort zone to grow and develop, if you are comfortable then you are usually not learning.

8. What’s the best advice for the most senior person in your team

People are key, build effective teams and develop them. Pass on your learnings from mistakes (we all make them), be honest and provide a clear direction so everyone knows what success looks like.

9. If you had to name one personal trait which makes you good at your job, what would it be?

Perseverance (I don’t give up easily)

10. Who do you look up to?

I am in awe of all women bossing it at home and at work while making it look easy.

11. What is the biggest challenge of being a Head of Compliance/ Financial Crime?

Finding new and innovative ways to use technology and data more effectively in financial crime preventative controls.

12.?What do you think makes a good MLRO?

Someone that can really cut through the noise and get to the root of an issue, razor-sharp judgment and a passion for preventing financial crime.

13. What do you say you do, when asked at a BBQ

When I say I work for Amazon people usually stop me there and start telling me how they ‘buy everything on there now’.

14.??What tool do you think is the most useful in doing your job?

At Amazon we build all our own tools for Screening, CDD, Transaction Monitoring etc, I couldn’t possibly pick one but there are definite benefits to building your own tech.

15. How do you keep up to date with industry knowledge?

I read a lot and I find LinkedIn super helpful to keep up to date too.

16. What do think will have the biggest impact on financial crime in the next 12 months?

Most firms use tech in implementing financial crime controls but I think the approach in the industry is changing from a scorecard type model to predictive modeling which is exciting stuff.

17. Who do you think is stand out in the industry at the moment?

I think the financial services industry has gone through incredible transformation over the last 10 years and there are some very interesting new fintechs in the payments and banking space.?

18.??If you could have another career, what would you have done?

I would have loved being a florist, I am a keen gardener and just love being creative.

19.?What do you look for when hiring people and how does someone impress you?

If you have a desire to learn, a passion for what you do, and you are prepared to work hard and have a strong drive to succeed then I’m impressed.?

20. Finally – what is one thing you want to learn more about?

My husband is currently trying to teach me to play the piano, I am not sure I have the patience for it though.?

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